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Sunday, August 03, 2014

Tzuk Eytan (Protective Edge) Day 27

"22
Gazans were killed for ever Israeli. Don't you feel guilty about
that?” asked the host of a BBC talk-show. He was speaking to Israel
government spokesman Mark Regev, who replied, “Hamas shot 2,700
rockets at Israel. If someone shot rockets at Britain you'd react the
same way.”

"But you
have the Iron Dome that effectively neutralized the threat,” the
host said. Regev responded Israel was lucky to have the Iron Dome or
more Israeli lives would have been lost. He said Hamas was trying to
kill Israelis, just wasn't succeeding. One viewer watching the
interview said, “What, now we're to feel guilty that we have the
Iron Dome?”

Regev also
pointed out that Hamas was managing the news, prohibiting reporters
from showing anything but the destruction caused by the Israeli
attacks, or bodies in Gazan hospitals. “Hamas rules Gaza with an
iron fist,” Regev told the BBC host, who appeared to brush off any
Israeli response to what seemed a pre-disposition to find Israel
guilty no matter what the facts. The moderator also asked how Israel
could bomb a marketplace when a ceasefire had been declared. Regev
seemed put off by the blatant one-sidedness of the questions, but
kept his cool. He reminded the moderator that Hamas had broken the
ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel so no ceasefire was in place
when Israel went after terrorists firing rockets from the
marketplace.

Earlier the
program discussed the conflict in Gaza with five participants. One
the former head of the pro-Arab Al Jazeera TV news station, based in
and paid for by Qatar; an Egyptian novelist who thought Egyptians
would live to regret unseating Moslem Brotherhood's Morsi as
president; and a professor from the London school of Economics who
had an Arab name. Two others were former Mossad head Ephraim HaLevi,
and a US diplomat.

HaLevi was
given a couple of minutes to speak, in which he pointed out that
Hamas and Hezbollah were non-state terrorist groups, with Hezbollah
members fighting for Assad in Syria, with Iran supplying boots on the
ground both in Syria and Gaza, and Russia and Iran supplying the
weapons used both in Syria and Gaza. Then he was cut off towards the
end of the sentence as the moderator shifted the topic and
interviewee.

This was the
beginning of a revolution similar to the French Revolution and the
Russian Revolution, said the London School of Economics professor.
The Israeli humanitarian carnage in Gaza would only fuel this
revolution. His words were supported by the Al-Jazerra man, who said
that the entire Arab world would now be mobilized against Israel and
the west, all because of what Israel was doing in Gaza.

The BBC also
ran a special report by chief international correspondent Lyce Doucet
on the plight of children in UN schools in Gaza. One observer
watching the report commented that Doucet has long been a harsh
critic of Israel going back to the time she first began reporting for
the BBC. The report on the children was another of her harsh
criticisms of Israel. Another report on the BBC gave a balanced
background to the conflict, “Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967
Middle East war and only pulled its troops and settlers out in 2005.
Israel considered this the end of the occupation, but it still
exercises control over most of Gaza's borders, waters and airspace.
Egypt controls Gaza's southern border.”

Other
stations ran anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian protests around Europe and
in Washington. Rarely did the reporters note that the mass of
protesters were themselves Palestinians.

As Israel
begins to pull forces out of Gaza the questions now begin, did the
IDF accomplish the goal of quelling the Hamas attacks? Were the
Israeli farms and villages safer after the Israeli incursion into
Gaza than before? Would Israel be held to a harsh standard because of
the human life lost in Gaza?

Israel's PM
Netanyahu told a news conference Saturday night that Israel would
continue to do what was necessary to protect Israel's citizens. This
even as protesters took to the streets calling on the IDF not to
withdraw from Gaza until Hamas was destroyed. Gen (res.) Giora
Eiland, former Israeli National Security Advisor, said that Hamas was
Gaza. You couldn't separate the two. You couldn't destroy Gaza. The
only way to change the situation was to do something that throws
Hamas off-balance. So far, Eiland said, nothing like this has been
achieved.

Military
analysts say that Israel has destroyed 35 tunnels, and will withdraw
forces from those areas where the tunnels were located, but keep
other troops in place to protect the southern settlements.

Most
observers say that a full-scale invasion of Gaza was indeed possible
since is a relatively small area, and could be overrun by Israel. The
question pundits ask is at what cost to Israeli lives, and Gazan
lives. And what comes next? The common thread heard by most experts
is that the solution is to have the PA's Abu Mazan take control of
Gaza, protected by perhaps Egypt or other outside forces.

2nd
Lt. Hadar Golden, believed to have been kidnapped during a Hamas
attack, was pronounced deceased on Saturday night. His family was
visited by Israel's chief rabbi who gave them the news. Later Moshe
Yaalon, Israel's Minister of Defense, visited the family. Golden's
death brings the number of soldiers killed to 65. Nearly 140 soldiers
are still in the hospital, 11 in grave condition.

The
Palestinians claim that approximately 1,700 Gazans have died in the
fighting and about 9,000 injured.

Some analysts
remind TV viewers of the fact that Hamas kidnapped three Israeli
teenagers, then began firing rockets into Israel, and these facts go
nearly unnoticed in the foreign press. On Saturday Hamas fired 90
rockets into Israel. One mortar round landed in a farm along the
border fence seriously wounding a 70-year old farmer. The Hamas
rocket fire continued on Sunday. The fact that Hamas can still fire
rockets underlines that Hamas still has the ability to fire weapons
into Israel even after 27 days of Israeli counter-attacks.

Where is the
fairness in this coverage, asked one concerned Jewish American. A Sky
News reporter in Gaza quoted residents who stated that Israel was
bombing Mosques simply because they were Moslem structures and that
the mosques had no missiles or terrorists in them. He also said that
Hamas was demanding and end to the economic boycott of Gaza. One
analyst said that had this reporter criticized Hamas in any way he
would have at least lost his privilege of reporting from Gaza. In the
past Hamas has been known to kidnap reporters and hold them for
ransom.

Hamas leader
Khaled Mashal admitted to CNN that Hamas had indeed broken the
ceasefire on Friday, but only because Israel was occupying Gaza and
digging up tunnels. The fact Hamas broke the ceasefire was lost in a
previous news cycle replaced by scenes of destroyed buildings in
Gaza.

Hamas
representatives, along with their partner Islamic Jihad, as well as
representatives of Qatar, Turkey, and the PA arrived in Cairo to
continue the process of reaching a formal ceasefire. Israel has said
it will not attend at this time. Experts say that Cairo will take a
tough line against Hamas, not wanting them to achieve any significant
goals as a result of this conflict. These pundits point out that
Egyptian president Al-Sissi has more than 35,000 prisoners in jail,
including many members of the Moslem Brotherhood, a Hamas brother
organization.

Critics of PM
Netanyahu say that the war against Hamas is ending with muddled
results. Tunnels destroyed can be rebuilt. The farms along the border
will still be hit with mortars, and long range rockets will still
lobbed into Israel when Hamas felt like doing so.

Israeli
residents on the Israel/Lebanon border in the north of Israel have
reported that they hear tunneling beneath their homes. The terrain in
Lebanon is much different than Gaza with hard thick bedrock and
basalt rather than soft sand. Drilling equipment and explosives are
needed to tunnel. Experts said that once Israel withdraws from Gaza
and the south they will focus on the very real tunnel threat along
the northern border.

Pundits say
that as long as this rise of Islamic Fundamentalism continues, Israel
will be on the front line of confronting these groups, functioning as
proxies of the west, all the while criticized for the damage incurred
in the fighting by the countries they are representing.

As author
William Goldman wrote in “The Princess Bride” who ever said life
was fair.